The fire is being carried out by rescue workers in the Florida building in the U.S. and Canadian News

Emergency crews are surviving the wreckage of a 12-story building that collapsed near Miami this week.

A fire that is still on fire among the rubble of a 12-story building He fell near the U.S. city of Miami complicated rescue efforts have been made this week, officials say 159 people are still unaware of.

Emergency crews continued to search for survivors under a mountain of debris on Saturday in a building in Surfside, a town near Miami, that left at least four dead.

The rescuers used infrared technology, water and foam to fight the fire, the source was unclear.

At a news conference, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said smoke has been the biggest challenge. He said the fire was “very deep” and said rescues had been “extremely difficult” due to the flames.

“The stench is very thick,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis added, speaking with the mayor.

At noon, heavy smoke came out of a balcony on the second floor of the part of the building that was still standing, as rescue workers dumped the debris to handle the dust.

“The biggest thing now is hope,” said Fire Chief Alan Cominsky. “It simply came to our notice then. It’s a very difficult situation. “

Meanwhile, a recently released 2018 report found that an engineer found evidence of severe structural damage and “concrete deterioration” under the pool cover in the condominium’s underground parking lot.

Engineer Frank Morabito warned that the waterproofing placed under the pool cover had failed due to a major design flaw.

“The impermeability that has not failed causes significant structural damage to the concrete slab structure beneath these sites,” he wrote. “Failure to replace waterproofing in the near future will result in the exponential spread of concrete deterioration.”

It was not immediately clear whether the damage described in the report was linked to the collapse of the building at around 01:30 on Thursday morning (05:30 GMT). The building had more than 130 units, about 80 of which were occupied, officials said. It seems that about half have fallen.

Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro, in a report by Surfside on Saturday, said investigators will study the engineer’s report on who demolished the building.

“Beware, local officials here say they are starting to immediately review all other buildings of similar age or older – this was a 40-year-old building across the region,” Zhou-Castro said.

“But, of course, for the relatives of the 159 possible souls still trapped beneath this rubbish, this is a rough wait, not only while they wait to answer how that happened, and more importantly, while they respond to the fate of their loved one.”

Rachel Spiegel’s mother, 66-year-old Judy Spiegel, lived on the sixth floor of the building. Speaking with his siblings, he said Saturday that the family was “trying to stay together.”

“I know my mother is a fighter,” Spiegel said. “I know he loves us. I know he doesn’t want to give up. So, you know, it’s the third day, so it’s hard. “

A couple on the beach react next to the building that collapsed on Surfside [Marco Bello/Reuters]